AK talker reaction to election & TV coverage question

[AKLes]

Interesting tone to Rick Rydell this morning. Accepting of, but not pleased with, the outcome of the big contest. But will his call for unity be heard?

More to come when the other local talkers take flight later this morning!

Meanwhile (I know this is a radio board but there is no Alaska TV board), last night showed why 2 is respected as the news leader. The others, notably 11 and 13, gave up on election coverage early and suddenly, abandoning the audience to 2.

The coverage on 2 was as respectable as any I've seen in any (much larger) "Lower-48" market both from content and technical viewpoints. Anybody have any different reaction?

 

[JasonW]

How did the vote go on the two ballot measures (cruise ship taxes and campaign donation limits)? I'm in Fairbanks, and I haven't yet heard definitive results for these.

Thank you.


-- Jason

 

[AKLes]

Both measures passed.

Campaign reform overwhelmingly.

Cruise ship tax/regulation by a decent margin.

I doubt the tally of the latter will be disputed but feel certain the issue will spend years and years in court.

figures I saw were with 87% of the precincts reporting and the numbers were such that it would take unanimous "no" votes in all of them plus an overwhelming of yet-uncounted absentees to change anything.

Today's Anchorage talk show reaction (that I heard and I did "shop around" a bit) was about equally split between calls for party unity and complaints that the Republican winner wasn't "Republican enough" and asserting they'd rather see the November win go to the opponent even though they purport to hate him, too.

Hosts:
Rydell seemed to be sincerely trying for unity.
Fagan seemed be favoring division and therefore conceding the November outcome.

What's the buzz in Fairbanks?

I'm working at keeping any personal feelings out of this and discussing what the callers and hosts are saying/doing and encourage others to do the same.

 

[JasonW]

Thank you for clueing me in on the ballot measures.

Locally, Michael Dukes on KFAR 660 seemed generally supportive of Sarah Palin. So did the callers. He said that her huge win is a mandate for our officials to finally do what Alaskans want instead of promising one thing and then doing another once they get to Juneau. However, even tentatively supportive callers pledged to vote for her to keep Tony Knowles from getting back into the Governor's mansion.

Michael also pointed out that Governor Murkowski's statewide votes were 18%, but only single digits in some districts (just 8% in Mike Kelley's district). Most of the callers cited Frank Murkowski's ending the Longevity Bonus, buying the jet, and seeming too cozy with the oil companies as their reasons for voting against him. The party primary results were all over the national news, as an incumbent governor coming in a distant last in a three-way primary race is truly unusual.

What amazes me is how well the cruise ship tax ballot measure did, considering the massive anti-measure ad campaign and the total lack (as far as I heard) of pro-measure ads.


-- Jason

 

[AKLes]

The cruise ship initiative was most interesting from a broadcast perspective.

An awful lot of the "NO" advertising was funnelled to the talk stations that, in their programming, favored the initiative.

At first glance it feels like the stations "biting the hand that feeds them" but the cruise operators apparently figured they couldn't afford NOT to reach the people who listen. So, for those listeners, conflicting messages on the same stations. I'm sure this proves something but I can't guess what!